Captain of doomed boat says group was too big

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) - The captain of a boat that capsized last weekend, killing 20 elderly tourists on a fall foliage tour, said Friday he had a larger group on board than usual.

Richard Paris, 74, told The Associated Press he was used to seeing tour buses with 30 to 35 people disembark at the Lake George pier before they piled aboard the Ethan Allen. There were 47 passengers aboard when it capsized.

He was at the wheel Sunday when the Ethan Allen flipped, spilling its passengers and Paris into the calm, 68-degree waters of this Adirondack lake. He initially told investigators he was trying to steer out of the wake of another boat.

Also Friday, Gov. George Pataki proposed making New York's boating laws as strict as federal law.

His legislation would require alcohol tests any time a boat is involved in a fatal accident. The governor made an immediate change in the way capacity is determined for tour boats on state-regulated waterways, increasing the weight standard from 140 pounds per passenger to 174 pounds.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are looking at whether excess weight - from the passengers and from boat modifications - contributed to the accident, and whether the boat was unstable. They also are studying traffic on the lake that day and human factors.

State parks officials began sending faxes to operators of 40 vessels around the state that will now have lower passenger capacities. For instance, the change lowers the capacity of one Chautauqua Lake tour boat from 42 to 33, parks spokeswoman Wendy Gibson said.

Another change Pataki wants is a requirement that boat operators give passengers a safety briefing on the use of life preservers. Passengers in the capsizing said they received no such briefing.

Paris declined to discuss specifics of the accident but said, "They've had a pretty good description of the accident in the paper."

The captain, taking a break from cleaning the gutters on his neat, one-story home near one of the lake's bays, said he had been instructed not to talk about the accident.